Dry Ice Rockets Affected By Volume and Amount of Dry Ice
Amar, Chris
Introduction
Charles Thilorier, who was a chemist from France, first discovered Dry Ice in 1834. During an experiment requiring liquefied Co2 that he was conducting, Thilorier noticed when he opened a container holding the liquid that most of the liquid had evaporated, but some of it was frozen solid. This was the first noted observation of the substance. Dry ice was not accessible to the public as a commercial product until the early twentieth-century when Thomas B. Slate patented it. The American Dryice Company soon trademarked frozen carbon dioxide, where it received the name, “dry ice.”5 Frozen carbon dioxide can be applied in many industrial fields such as blast cleaning. Blast cleaning includes shooting small pellets of dry ice from a nozzle using compressed air; this method can be used for industrial paint removal, as well as ink, oil and glue removal. Dry ice has been a more preferable way of blast cleaning because it does not leave any residue unlike, water, sand or steam.5
Dry ice comes from a process called deposition, which is the process in which a gas becomes a solid. Carbon dioxide (two oxygen atoms with a carbon molecule) freezes at about -109.3°F causing the co2 molecules to compact.6
The key to dry ice rockets is sublimation, which is the transition from a solid to a gas. When the dry ice is added to a canister filled with water the frozen carbon dioxide will begin to warm up. As this happens, the dry ice evaporates adding gas pressure within the container. Once the gas in the container reaches a certain amount the pressure will force the cap off of the canister into the air.4 Our goal in this experiment is to determine how the amount of dry ice within a container will affect the height in which the container travels, as well as the amount of time the container is in the air. We hypothesized that a bigger dry ice to water ratio will create a longer hang time in both sizes of the containers, because the more dry ice we can sublimate, the more gas pressure there will be with the canister.
Procedure
Our goal was to determine how long an object will stay in the air after it is forced up from dry ice. To measure this, we used a stop watch to time how long the projectile will hang. We also measured the time between the sounds of landing and taking off using logger pro. We used two different projectiles with different sizes one large and one small (Film canister, tennis ball canister) we had a small amount and a big amount of dry ice that we tested for each canister five times. By the end our group had four T-tests, and twenty trials in total, but we found out the averages of our four trials
Results
After Finishing experimenting with the big and small canister both five trials with two different amounts of dry Ice we received these results of the hang-time of the rockets. The measurement we used for times is in seconds.
Big Canister
100 grams of Ice
0.1
0.1
0.2
0.1
0.2
200 grams of Ice
0.2
0.3
0.2
0.2
0.3
Small Canister
5 grams of dry Ice: 1.4
1.7
2.1
1.1
2.3
10 grams of dry Ice: 0.8
0.7
1.2
0.9
1.5
*numbers rounded to the nearest second
We preformed a T-test and got that p= .00003247
Conclusions
After finishing experimenting with the dry ice we came to the conclusion that it depends on the size of the canister. With the small canister a smaller amount of dry ice would have a larger hang-time but in the big canister a larger amount of dry Ice would create a larger hang-time. It was like we said it depends on the canister size how high and long the rocket would go. If someone would want to re-create this project I would suggest getting sturdy canisters that won't leak.
Table of Contents
Dry Ice Rockets Affected By Volume and Amount of Dry Ice
Amar, Chris
Introduction
Charles Thilorier, who was a chemist from France, first discovered Dry Ice in 1834. During an experiment requiring liquefied Co2 that he was conducting, Thilorier noticed when he opened a container holding the liquid that most of the liquid had evaporated, but some of it was frozen solid. This was the first noted observation of the substance. Dry ice was not accessible to the public as a commercial product until the early twentieth-century when Thomas B. Slate patented it. The American Dryice Company soon trademarked frozen carbon dioxide, where it received the name, “dry ice.”5Frozen carbon dioxide can be applied in many industrial fields such as blast cleaning. Blast cleaning includes shooting small pellets of dry ice from a nozzle using compressed air; this method can be used for industrial paint removal, as well as ink, oil and glue removal. Dry ice has been a more preferable way of blast cleaning because it does not leave any residue unlike, water, sand or steam.5
Dry ice comes from a process called deposition, which is the process in which a gas becomes a solid. Carbon dioxide (two oxygen atoms with a carbon molecule) freezes at about -109.3°F causing the co2 molecules to compact.6
The key to dry ice rockets is sublimation, which is the transition from a solid to a gas. When the dry ice is added to a canister filled with water the frozen carbon dioxide will begin to warm up. As this happens, the dry ice evaporates adding gas pressure within the container. Once the gas in the container reaches a certain amount the pressure will force the cap off of the canister into the air.4 Our goal in this experiment is to determine how the amount of dry ice within a container will affect the height in which the container travels, as well as the amount of time the container is in the air. We hypothesized that a bigger dry ice to water ratio will create a longer hang time in both sizes of the containers, because the more dry ice we can sublimate, the more gas pressure there will be with the canister.
Procedure
Our goal was to determine how long an object will stay in the air after it is forced up from dry ice. To measure this, we used a stop watch to time how long the projectile will hang. We also measured the time between the sounds of landing and taking off using logger pro. We used two different projectiles with different sizes one large and one small (Film canister, tennis ball canister) we had a small amount and a big amount of dry ice that we tested for each canister five times. By the end our group had four T-tests, and twenty trials in total, but we found out the averages of our four trials
Results
After Finishing experimenting with the big and small canister both five trials with two different amounts of dry Ice we received these results of the hang-time of the rockets. The measurement we used for times is in seconds.Big Canister
Small Canister
We preformed a T-test and got that p= .00003247
Conclusions
After finishing experimenting with the dry ice we came to the conclusion that it depends on the size of the canister. With the small canister a smaller amount of dry ice would have a larger hang-time but in the big canister a larger amount of dry Ice would create a larger hang-time. It was like we said it depends on the canister size how high and long the rocket would go. If someone would want to re-create this project I would suggest getting sturdy canisters that won't leak.
References
1 .•Rich, Brian W. "Experimenting with Dry Ice." VOIP, Local Phone Service, Wan Consulting, and Network Consulting – Santa Barbara, Ventura: Impulse Internet. Brian Wesley Rich, 01 July 2011. Web. 17 Jan. 2012. <http://www.west.net/~science/co2.htm>.
2 •Coleman and Daniel. "Home Made Rockets." PiSci. Paideia, 2 Feb. 2011. Web. <http://pisci.wikispaces.com/Rockets#Home Made Rockets>.
•Merrit, Dr. "Dry Ice Projects | Dry Ice Science and Chemistry | School Projects." Dry Ice Information - All about Dry Ice. 26 July 2010. Web. 01 Feb. 2011. <http://www.dryiceinfo.com/science.htm>
3 •"Dry Ice Experiments for Schools, Teachers and Students." Dry Ice Information - Dry Ice Pellets, Blocks & Liquid CO2 | Dry Ice Blasting | Continental Carbonic. Continental Carbonic, 23 May 2010. Web. 17 Jan. 2012. <http://www.dryicesource.com/dryiceexperiments/index.php>.
4 •"Dry Ice Bomb." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.Web. 17 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_ice_bomb>.
5 •"Dry Ice." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web.17 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_ice>.
6 •HowStuffWorks "How Does Dry Ice Work?""HowStuffWorks "Science" Web. 17 Jan. 2012.<http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/science-questions/question264.htm>.